Full Text of the Excerpt

I wondered if the church was an important part of your life when you were growing up?

MILDRED PRICE COY:

No, we didn't have a church. We lived out in the country. We'd go to Madison some Sun. . . . My father would drive over there in the surrey, and we'd go to the Presbyterian Church. But you can imagine what sort of preachers they had. And then we'd go to the Primitive Baptist Church up there close to us once a month. We didn't go every time. But they were ignorant farmers who preached. The Primitive Baptist didn't have trained preachers. MARY FREDERICKSON Did you spend much time in your family on religion? Did you have family prayers or anything like that?

MILDRED PRICE COY:

Only when the preacher came. MARY FREDERICKSON [Laughter]

MILDRED PRICE COY:

The preacher came, and then we'd all get down on our knees. MARY FREDERICKSON Did religion mean anything to you as a child, or church was something interesting that you did every once in a while?

MILDRED PRICE COY:

I didn't really question anything, but I was glad to have the beautiful Sunday school cards that we'd get. And I read the New Testament. I won a New Testament when we lived in Leaksville-Spray, and so I read that. And Ruth, my oldest sister, and Branson and I slept upstairs in a room together, and every night I read a chapter in the New Testament. I doubt that I knew what I was reading. But it had my name on it; I still have it here. And I read that every night. Ruth didn't say anything; Brans didn't say anything. I just read it, and then I went to sleep. I couldn't possibly tell you why I read it. MARY FREDERICKSON You weren't made to read this or anything like . . .

MILDRED PRICE COY:

No, nobody read the Bible in the house. MARY FREDERICKSON Had your mother sort of rejected religion because her mother was so religious?

MILDRED PRICE COY:

No, she didn't ever reject it. But she wasn't religious, really. She wasn't a fanatic. MARY FREDERICKSON It was just sort of something she did socially every once in a while?

MILDRED PRICE COY:

She didn't do much socially. If my father wanted to go to church on Sunday, she'd fix herself up and fix as many children as they could crowd into the surrey and drive over there to Madison, five miles away.